About ToxicTrailers.com

ToxicTrailers.com was launched after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when the government spent more than $2 billion on FEMA trailers with high levels of formaldehyde that sickened thousands of people. The FEMA trailer tragedy exposed what is a widespread problem in RVs, mobile homes, modular buildings and even conventional buildings that use pressed wood products. Unfortunately, as we approach the tenth anniversary of Katrina, formaldehyde regulations are not being enforced in the U.S., and people's health is at risk. If you are having burning eyes, congestion, sore throat, coughing, breathing difficulties, frequent sinus infections or rashes, and difficulties concentrating, you may have a formaldehyde problem. For questions or to share your story, write 4becky@cox.net.

Friday, September 28, 2012

The largest mass poisoning of Americans by their government, the exposure to high levels of formaldehyde in FEMA trailers after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, has resulted in what one of the former FEMA trailer residents calls: AMERICAN JUSTICE
The Katrina survivors who FEMA knowingly exposed to formaldehyde in FEMA trailers get $300 bucks and the lawyers get over $20 million. That $300 isn't likely to pay for even one emergency room visit.
AP's MICHAEL KUNZELMAN reports that "A federal judge gave his final approval Thursday to a $42.6 million class-action settlement between companies that made and installed government-issued trailers after hurricanes in 2005 and Gulf Coast storm victims who claim they were exposed to hazardous fumes while living in the shelters.
...Gerald Meunier, a lead plaintiffs’ attorney, said the deal provides residents with ‘‘somewhat modest’’ compensation but allows both sides to avoid the expense and risks of protracted litigation.
‘‘Dollar amounts alone do not determine whether a settlement is fair and reasonable,’’ he said.
Easy for for the plaintiff lawyers to say when get to bank millions compared to hundreds for the people who got sick or died as a result of formaldehyde exposure.
Here is another quote from the AP story:
Engelhardt noted he received a letter from a woman whose 66-year-old mother, Agnes Mauldin, of Mississippi, died of leukemia in 2008 after living in a FEMA trailer. Mauldin’s daughter, Lydia Greenlees, said the settlement offers “very little” for what her family considers to be a wrongful death case.
“I am saddened about the settlement in that I feel like it makes a mockery of my mother’s life,” Greenlees wrote. “I don’t want anyone to think for one second that I view this settlement as a fair trade for my mother’s life. I do not.”
THE FINAL INSULT? FEMA is back to no longer testing emergency housing for formaldehyde before purchasing it. FEMA says they are just buying what is available for purchase on any trailer sales lot in America. So since the American public at large is not being protected from housing with elevated levels of formaldehyde, why should disaster victims be treated any better? So the manufactured housing industry gets to continuing using cheap, formaldehyde emitting products instead of using the safer alternatives to formaldehyde binders that now exist like Soyad.

Warning: RVS and mobile homes may be hazardous to your health!!

Imagine that you have just lost your home in a natural disaster, and are now waiting to get a FEMA trailer for temporary housing. The fact is, you and your family might be better off in a tent or living with friends and relatives, even if it is crowded.

After Hurricane Katrina, FEMA purchased about 102,000 travel trailers at a cost of $2.6 billion to house the victims of the nation’s largest natural disaster. It turns out that the vast majority of these trailers have excessive levels of formaldehyde. See the results of testing done by the CDC that were announced Feb. 29, 2008 at the website http://cdc.gov/nceh/ehhe/trailerstudy/ or just Google CDC formaldehyde FEMA study. This website also has links to information for residents and health care practitioners.

From the very beginning people who received FEMA trailers after Katrina reported experiencing problems such as irritated eyes, breathing problems, bloody noses, headaches, nausea, frequent respiratory infections and skin rashes. We know one family that moved from the FEMA trailer into a storage shed on their property because their daughter threw up every time she spent any time in the trailer. Another man sleeping in his driveway next to his trailer said, “My FEMA trailer is killing me!” One couple experienced such heavy chest congestion combined with nose bleeds that they abandoned their FEMA trailer to sleep in their truck.

The CDC testing confirmed three earlier rounds of testing done by Sierra Club in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama in 2006 and 2007 with test kits from Advanced Chemical Sensors. Out of 69 tests, 61 were over 0.1 ppm which represents 88 percent of the trailers tested. The tests used 0.1 ppm as the concentration above which health impacts are expected. However, much lower levels are recommended for long-term exposure. The Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry (ATSDR) Minimal Risk Levels are 0.04 ppm for 1-14 days, 0.03 for 14-364 days and 0.008 ppm for 365 or more days exposure. The lowest of the 69 Sierra Club tests was 0.04. The highest test was 0.39.

As you will see by reading the blogs on this page, the formaldehyde problem is not confined to just RVs and mobile homes purchased by FEMA. Manufacturers state that they didn't do anything differently for RVs and mobile homes sold to FEMA than those sold to the general public. People across the country are reporting formaldehyde problems in not just campers and manufactured housing, but regular homes, offices, churches and schools.

For an in-depth look at this issue including how FEMA and the ATSDR tried to coverup the problem rather than respond to a major public health disaster, see the hearing transcript from the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1413.